We Kiss When We Confess
by SilentCoru
Summary: "Naive, romantic, silly, she thought she could tell him with her eyes, but now she can't bear to look at him and feel... feel too much, too much at once, the way she always feels when their eyes touch." A short, sweet little ficlet about a flower girl and her soldier playing a game of saying what's most important while not speaking a word. Aerith X Zack, fluff. [FFVII] [Oneshot]


It was a game Elmyra taught her as a little girl.

Zack had raised an eyebrow at her when she first brought it up. They both knew a game of silence wouldn't mix easily with his effortless way of starting a conversation, of rolling his shoulders with well-worn laughter and his blue eyes always intent on her as she replied, shyly glancing back at the newest blooms.

But she had suggested it anyway; in her secret heart, like a hidden garden, she wanted to be able to share things with him as easily as he seemed to with her. And without words, she was sure she could tell him what she most wanted to say...

_"Come here, sweet girl."_

_The woman she had come to think of as mother opened her arms. Aerith sunk into her apron with a hiccuping sob, young and fragile as sunrise on a frozen lake._

_"Why won't you speak?" her mother asked gently. "You haven't said a word in days."_

_"It hurts Mama," she whispered. "The planet is hurting."_

_"...I know, little one." Elmyra's gentle hand rubbed her back briskly._

_Aerith's tears fell onto her mother's dress silently for a few moments._

_"Why don't we play a game?"_

Aerith blinks at the soil beneath her nails, feeling Zack's gaze burning her cheek. She is aching to look up, to meet those eyes, but instead she feels herself flush wildly. A circle of heat is uncoiling inside her, stretching and twining.

Zack shifts slightly, earning himself a quick glance from the flower girl. She is too distracted by him, leaning against the pillar with his arms crossed, and his _eyes_! So bright and earnest and full of something that makes her joints soften and her heart turn into a molten pool.

The flower girl snatches her stare back to the new lilies, trying to distract herself... she planted them a few weeks ago, look how the sun makes the petals thin and glowing like the edge of a sword risen from the fire, feel her palms on the fabric of her dress, remember the day he took her hand and her heart fluttered right out of her.

_Wait, no. Stop thinking about Zack_.

Aerith tries again, desperately, to align her thoughts. She stares at the sun on her hands, making her fingertips glow pink. Listening to his breaths, she hears him shift, his boots scuff on the worn church floorboards as he crosses the motes of dust swirling in the sun to where she kneels.

Her cheeks burn as she stares intently downward. Her chin feels locked in place with embarrassment, refusing to meet Zack's gaze that has surely picked up on her blush by this moment. Her heart skips a beat and trembles.

Naive, romantic, silly, she thought she could tell him with her eyes, but now she can't bear to look at him and feel... feel too much, too much at once, the way she always feels when their eyes touch. A feeling too big to fit on her tongue, so right and perfect and unbearable that she wants to run and run and yet never move an inch away. So full of life that it feels like it's killing her, a rose growing itself to death with too-hasty roots and thorns.

Oh Gaia, she loves him.

The soft worn leather of his gloves grip her upper arms, gently tugging her up to stand at his level; her skin tingles, sensation shivering over her. She continues to glow crimson and look away until he softly (careful for all his strength) taps her chin with a curled finger.

She looks into his eyes and immediately falls away and is lost. He smiles and she is drowning without remorse.

Leaning in, he presses a kiss to her forehead and laughs, almost silent save for the catch of his breath.

"Aerith," he whispers, charging her with electricity from all their silence and her name blooming from his mouth. "I-"

She leans back quickly and stops him with a finger against his lips, and then she shyly leans in to kiss the Soldier she's come to love so much.


End file.
